The Political Reform Act of 1974, among other things, requires the disclosure of certain payments of or promises to pay $50,000 or more for a communication that clearly identifies a candidate for elective state office, but does not expressly advocate the election or defeat of the candidate, and that is disseminated, broadcast, or otherwise published within 45 days of an election, as specified. The Act also requires disclosure by any person who receives or is promised a payment totaling $5,000 or more for the purpose of making such a communication, unless the person who receives the payment is in the business of providing goods or services and receives or is promised the payment for the purpose of providing those goods or services. This bill would also require the disclosure of any payment of or promise to pay $25,000 or more for a communication that clearly identifies an elected state officer, and educates the public about the previous votes cast by the elected state officer or about the source of campaign donations received by the elected state officer, and that is disseminated, broadcast, or otherwise published within 150 days of an election, as specified. The bill also would require disclosure by any person who receives or is promised a payment totaling $5,000 or more for the purpose of making such a communication, unless the person who receives the payment is in the business of providing goods or services and receives or is promised the payment for the purpose of providing those goods or services. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.
Existing law establishes the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals. If a family does not include a needy child qualified for aid under CalWORKs, existing law requires aid to be paid to a pregnant person as of the date of the application for aid, as specified. Existing law, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act, requires the State Department of Social Services to award funds to participating counties in order to provide voluntary evidence-based home visiting services to assistance units that meet specified requirements. Existing law establishes the CalWORKs Home Visiting Program, a voluntary program for the purpose of supporting positive health, development, and well-being outcomes for pregnant and parenting people, families, and infants born into poverty. Existing law requires the program to provide high-quality, evidence-based, culturally competent services to pregnant people, parents or caretaker relatives, and children for 24 months or until the child's 2nd birthday, whichever is later, that meet the needs of at-risk assistance units, as specified. This bill would extend those provisions to apply to children for at least 24 months, and not to exceed the duration of the applicable home visiting program model. Existing law requires a voluntary participant in the program to meet specified criteria, including that the individual is either a member of a CalWORKs assistance unit, a parent or caretaker relative for a child-only case, or an individual who is apparently eligible for CalWORKs aid, and that the individual is pregnant or the individual is a parent or caretaker relative of a child less than 24 months of age at the time the individual enrolls in the program, except as specified. This bill would revise that requirement to apply to a child less than 36 months of age. The bill would authorize a voluntary participant whose participation would otherwise be terminated because the participant no longer meets CalWORKs income, eligibility, or need criteria to continue through the duration of the home visiting program or for up to an additional 12 months.
Existing law provides for the civil commitment of a person who is determined to be a sexually violent predator. Existing law establishes a procedure by which a person committed as a sexually violent predator may petition for conditional release and requires the court, if it makes a specified determination, to place the person on conditional release. Existing law generally requires that a person released on conditional release pursuant to these provisions be placed in the person's county of domicile prior to their incarceration unless extraordinary circumstances exist requiring placement outside the county, as specified. Existing law also prohibits the placement of a person released on conditional release within 14 mile of any public or private school, as specified. Existing law defines a sexually violent predator as a person who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense and has a diagnosed mental disorder that makes the person a danger to others in that they are likely to engage in sexually violent criminal behavior. Existing law requires the State Department of State Hospitals to notify the sheriff or chief of police, or both, the district attorney, or the county's designated counsel under specific circumstances, including when it makes a recommendation to the court for community outpatient treatment for a person committed as a sexually violent predator. This bill, the Sexually Violent Predator Accountability, Fairness, and Enforcement Act, would require the State Department of State Hospitals to ensure department vendors consider public safety in the placement of a conditionally released sexually violent predator and approve a potential placement before a department employee or vendor signs a lease or rental agreement for the placement of a sexually violent predator, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires each state and local agency that employs peace officers to annually report to the Attorney General data on all stops conducted by the agency's peace officers, and requires that data to include specified information, including the time, date, and location of the stop, and the reason given to the person stopped at the time of the stop. Existing law also makes all stop data and reports public records. This bill would revise these provisions to require each state and local agency that employs peace officers to report stop data to the Attorney General, as described above, by March 1, as specified. The bill would require those agencies to report semiannually if reporting issues or unresolved errors are identified in their submissions, as specified. By imposing new duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would specify that any stop data reported by a state or local agency in an open text or narrative field only be made available from the reporting agency and not from the Attorney General. The bill would also require the Attorney General to provide all state and local agency stop data to public or private entities, as specified, for the study of racial and identity profiling by law enforcement. The bill would make related findings and declarations. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes the California Health and Human Services Agency, which includes departments charged with the administration of health, social, and other human services. Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care under the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, and the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law sets forth requirements for provider credentialing by a health care service plan or health insurer. A violation of the requirements of the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 by a health care service plan is a crime. This bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to create and maintain a physician credentialing board, with specified membership, and would require the board, on or before July 1, 2027, to develop a standardized credentialing form to be used by all health care service plans and health insurers. The bill would require every health care service plan or health insurer to use the standardized credentialing form, as specified. The bill would not apply the standardized form requirements to specified Medi-Cal managed care contracts with the State Department of Health Care Services. Existing law, for provider contracts issued, amended, or renewed on and after January 1, 2023, requires a health care service plan or disability insurer that provides coverage for mental health and substance use disorders and that credentials health care providers of those services for its networks to assess and verify the qualifications of a health care provider within 60 days after receiving a completed provider credentialing application, and to notify the applicant within 7 business days of receipt of the application to verify receipt and inform the applicant whether the application is complete. This bill, for provider contracts issued, amended, or renewed on and after January 1, 2026, would impose the same requirements on all health care service plans and health insurers that credential health care providers for their networks. Because violation of certain requirements of the bill by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
By Executive Order No. N-82-20, Governor Gavin Newsom directed the Natural Resources Agency to combat the biodiversity and climate crises by, among other things, establishing the California Biodiversity Collaborative and conserving at least 30% of the state's lands and coastal waters by 2030. Existing law requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to prepare and submit, on or before March 31, 2024, and annually thereafter, a report to the Legislature on the progress made in the prior calendar year toward achieving the goal to conserve 30% of California's lands and coastal waters by 2030. Existing law provides that it is the goal of the state to conserve at least 30% of California's lands and coastal waters by 2030, known as the 30x30 goal. This bill would require all state agencies, departments, boards, offices, commissions, and conservancies to consider the 30x30 goal when adopting, revising, or establishing plans, policies, or regulations that directly affect the use of coastal waters or land, management of natural resources, or biodiversity conservation.
Existing law, the Parent's Accountability and Child Protection Act, requires a person or business that conducts business in California and that seeks to sell specified products or services to take reasonable steps to ensure that the purchaser is of legal age at the time of purchase or delivery, including verifying the age of the purchaser. The act provides that reasonable steps include, but are not limited to, any of specified options, including requiring the user to input, scan, provide, or display a government-issued identification, as specified. The act prohibits any person or business required to comply with the provisions of the act from retaining, using, or disclosing any information it receives from a purchaser or recipient in an effort to verify age under the provisions of the act. In an action brought by a public prosecutor, existing law subjects a business or person that violates these provisions to a civil penalty not to exceed $7,500 for each violation. This bill would expand the above-described provisions to require a person or business that conducts business in California and seeks to sell or make available products or services that are illegal to make available to minors, as specified, to take reasonable steps to ensure that the purchaser or user, as defined, is of legal age at the time of access, purchase, or delivery, as applicable. The bill would provide that reasonable steps include, but are not limited to, any of specified options, including requiring the user or purchaser to input, scan, provide, or display a government-issued identification, as specified, and would also require the Attorney General to issue regulations further defining reasonable steps pursuant to these provisions, as provided. The bill would expand the above-described prohibition against retention, use, or disclosure to apply to a person or business that conducts business in California and that seeks to make available products that are illegal to make available to minors and would require the business or person to ensure that the reasonable step is designed to anonymize a user's identity and is incapable of being used to create a record of the user's online activity. This bill would provide that the penalty described above for a violation of the bill's provisions with regard to certain products or services that are illegal to make available to minors may be assessed and recovered only in a civil action brought by the Attorney General. The bill would also delete an obsolete provision. The bill would make the bill's provisions operative on January 1, 2027.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California, independent institutions of higher education, and private postsecondary educational institutions as the segments of postsecondary education in the state. The Donahoe Higher Education Act requires public higher education entities to adopt regulations to withhold institutional services, including withholding grades and diplomas, upon notice to a student that they are in default on a loan made pursuant to specified federal law. Notwithstanding any other law, the Educational Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits a school, as defined, from refusing to provide a transcript for a current or former student on the grounds that the student owes a debt, conditioning the provision of a transcript on the payment of a debt, charging a higher fee for obtaining a transcript, providing less favorable treatment of a transcript request because a student owes a debt, or using a transcript issuance as a tool for debt collection, as specified. This bill would expand the provisions described above to also prohibit a school from refusing to provide a diploma, as defined, for a current or former student on the grounds that the student owes a debt, conditioning the provision of a diploma on the payment of a debt, charging a higher fee for obtaining a diploma, providing less favorable treatment of a diploma request because a student owes a debt, or using a diploma issuance as a tool for debt collection. The bill would make other conforming changes. This bill would prohibit an institution of higher education, as defined, from taking specified actions, including, among other things, charging a higher tuition or fee on the grounds that the student owes an institutional debt, as defined. The bill would authorize an institution of higher education to prevent a current or former student that owes an institutional debt from enrolling or registering for courses on the basis that the student owes an institutional debt if the institution of higher education complies with specified conditions, including, among other conditions, that the institution grants a one-time exemption from an enrollment or registration hold on a current or former student on the grounds that the student owes an institutional debt, as provided. The bill would require an institution of higher education to establish a written policy defining standards and practices for the collection of institutional debt, as provided, and to provide the written policy to current or former students that owe an institutional debt. The bill would prohibit an institution of higher education from taking specified actions when collecting an institutional debt. The bill would require the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges and the Trustees of the California State University, and request the office of the President of the University of California, to require each public institution to report, beginning on or before July 1, 2026, using a specified uniform format, and on a biennial basis, specified information regarding the number and dollar amount of institutional debts at each institution. By imposing new duties on community college districts, the bill would constitute a state-mandated local program. Existing law authorizes the Controller, in their discretion, to offset any amount due to a state agency from a person or entity, against any amount owing to that person or entity, including any tax refund, by any state agency, except as specified. This bill would prohibit the Controller, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2025, from offsetting any amount due to a public or private postsecondary educational institution, as defined, from a current or former student, that was incurred in their capacity as a student, against any amount owing to that current or former student by a state agency, until 730 days after the amount was incurred. The bill would make its provisions severable. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) to oversee health planning and health policy research, including the health care workforce research and data center. Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, establishes the Board of Registered Nursing within the Department of Consumer Affairs for the licensure and regulation of nurses. Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities and clinics, as defined, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires an organization that operates, conducts, owns, or maintains a health facility, and the officers thereof, to make and file with HCAI certain reports, including balance sheets and other financial statements. Existing law sets forth related reporting provisions for clinics. This bill would require a health facility or a clinic, whether or not it currently offers prelicensure clinical placement slots, to meet with representatives from an approved school of nursing or approved nursing program, upon request by the school or program, to discuss the clinical placement needs of the school or program. The bill would require a nursing school or program to annually prepare a report on clinical placements for nursing students and to submit it to the board, with updates. The bill would require the report to include the beginning and end dates of all academic terms within the subsequent calendar year for each clinical slot needed by a clinical group with content area and education level, and the number of clinical slots that the school or program has been unable to fill within the preceding calendar year. The bill would require the board to submit that information to HCAI. The bill would require a health facility or a clinic, whether or not it currently offers prelicensure clinical placement slots, to annually prepare and submit to HCAI a report, with updates, on clinical placements for nursing students. The bill would authorize HCAI to decide to phase in the types of health facilities or clinics required to report on clinical placements. Under the bill, the report would include, among other things, the estimated number of days and shifts that will be made available within the subsequent calendar year for student use for each patient population served in the health facility or clinic, as specified. The bill would require HCAI to post the report on its internet website in a manner that allows for the information in the report to be cross-referenced against the above-described information from the nursing school or program. The bill would authorize the board, upon request by a nursing school or program, to assist in identifying clinical placement slot opportunities to meet the clinical placement needs of that school or program, by conferring with health facilities or clinics within the appropriate geographic region of each school or program in an attempt to match available clinical placement slots with needed slots and to encourage the creation of new clinical placement slots at additional clinical training sites to meet school or program needs, as specified. The bill would require the board to report a summary of every request made by an approved school or program and of any assistance provided and the outcome of that assistance. The bill would prohibit any attempt to identify additional clinical placement slots by the board, a health facility, or a clinic from supplanting or disrupting the clinical placement of any nursing student for whom a clinical placement is already in progress, has already been scheduled, or is under agreement for future use by an approved school or program. The bill would condition implementation of its provisions on an appropriation. The bill would also make related legislative findings.
Existing law establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, known as "GO-Biz," within the Governor's office to serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. Existing law establishes, within GO-Biz, the Energy Unit to accelerate the planning, financing, and execution of critical energy infrastructure projects that are necessary for the state to reach its climate, energy, and sustainability policy goals, including by identifying barriers, making recommendations, creating a working group, coordinating between the state's climate and energy agencies, and cooperating with local, regional, federal, and California public and private businesses and investors. Existing law requires the Energy Unit to submit a report to the Legislature on its activities on or before February 1 of each year, as specified. This bill would require the Energy Unit to identify, among other things, nonratepayer-funded energy industry resources, including grants, tax credits, loans, and technical assistance, across local, state, and federal departments and agencies that are available to assist businesses and workers in the transition to a net-zero-powered economy. The bill would require the Energy Unit to work with specified agencies to identify workforce development programs specific to the energy industry and gather data on how education and outreach is conducted to disadvantaged communities, as defined. The bill would also require the Energy Unit, in collaboration with the Small Business Advocate, to identify the participation levels in those energy industry resources by businesses owned by women, minorities, disabled individuals, and veteran-owned businesses, as well as individuals from disadvantaged communities. This bill would require the Energy Unit to hold at least 3 public workshops and engage with stakeholders and specified representatives to develop recommendations on addressing barriers to access to those energy industry resources faced by business-owner groups and individuals who live in disadvantaged communities and how to increase their participation levels to the extent that there are disparities, as specified. The bill would also require the Energy Unit to convene a technical advisory group for related purposes, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Unit to include those findings and recommendations and other related information in its annual report to the Legislature. The bill would also make related legislative findings and declarations.
Existing law provides the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation with jurisdiction over the state prison, as specified. Existing law states that it is unlawful to use any cruel, corporal, or unusual punishment or to inflict any treatment or allow any lack of care which would injure or impair the health of a prisoner, inmate, or person confined. This bill would require the department to track specified data regarding the population within solitary confinement, also known as restricted housing, including demographic information and a specific description of the types of restrictions for solitary confinement in the institution. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, to report this data to the Legislature, as specified.
Existing law establishes the California Promise, which requires at least 20 campuses of the California State University to establish a California Promise program by which the campus enters into a pledge with a qualifying transfer student to support the student in earning a baccalaureate degree within 2 academic years of the student's first year of enrollment to the campus, as provided. Existing law repeals these provisions on January 1, 2026. This bill would rename the California Promise program the Finish in Four and Through in Two program, as provided. The bill would require each campus participating in the Finish in Four and Through in Two program to take specified actions to promote the program. The bill would require the Trustees of the California State University, on or before July 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, until January 1, 2034, to submit a report to the Legislature that includes specified program participation information. The bill would delete an obsolete reporting requirement. The bill would delete the January 1, 2026, program repeal date, thereby extending the program indefinitely.
